Lily Evans was the Coolest Person He'd Ever Met
by xLynchiex
Summary: Sirius Black, notorious fan of Lily Evans' muggle magazines, finds himself inexplicably obsessed with one specific edition he sees her reading at breakfast. That paired with some feeling in his stomach that he'd rather not think about, he learns that Lily Evans is way cooler than he thought.


Sirius Black was incredibly certain that he knew himself very well. So well that at breakfast, he slid several pastries and muffins into his bag, knowing full well he'd forget about them and be pleasantly surprised later. His friends knew him well too, as they didn't bat an eyelid. James was leaning his head on his hand with a goofy smile on his face.

"Did you see Evans' Potions essay? It was wild man, so clever. She's so smart. Do you think if I did a really good Potions essay she'd like it?" He was speaking in hushed tones so that the Lily in question wouldn't be able to hear.

She had sat several spots down across from him, and she was reading a muggle magazine. Sirius was fascinated with muggles, as it was only another thing that would drive his mother insane. Usually her magazines showed music groups with sparkly costumes, but this one did not. The unmoving photo on the cover showed crowds of people holding signs adorned with rainbows and pink triangles. She wasn't usually charitable to his prodding, but maybe she'd spare him this morning.

"Hey Lil, what you got there?" Sirius called casually, aware of his aggravating use of a nickname.

"A muggle magazine." she replied without looking up.

"I can see that. Why aren't there musicians on the front? Like the Bee's Knees?"

"They're called the Bee Gees." she rolled her eyes. "There was a queer rights protest."

"What's a queer? Another muggle thing?"

She looked at him as if he grew a third head. "Queer? You know, gay? Transgender? They had a protest."

"I'm telling you I don't know what that is." he said frustrated.

"You serious Pads?" asked Peter.

"Of course I'm Sirius. It's my name."

"Oh ha ha."

"You know, it's when two guys or two girls get together." James said nonchalantly.

"Together?"

"Shag."

"Ew James." Peter said with a chuckle.

"You can do that?" he exclaimed, a little too loudly. Giggles dispersed at his outburst and he turned away bashfully.

"Makes sense you don't know about it, your family's all about making pure babies after all." James said quietly, as to not embarrass him further. Sirius made a face at the reminder that his parents were, in fact, first cousins.

"You really never heard of it before?" asked Remus lightheartedly.

"Unlike a lot of other families, we don't really do side gig stuff, you suffer in your awful marriage like men." he crossed his arms. "I guess there was never a reason for me to know about it." he huffed, scrunching up his face in a frown into his plate of eggs below. Remus gave him a sad smile, and under the table on his left, James squeezed his knee.

All the way through his first period of History of Magic, his mind kept coming back to Lily's magazine. A photograph of a street full of queer people, people he didn't even know existed until that morning. Men who loved men, women who loved women, and others that they didn't explain. But even with all those people grouped together, he'd never once met someone like them.

The normally studious Remus' eyes were drooping low in the warm sunshine of the spring afternoon, Professor Binn's voice providing a dull background noise that sent everyone to sleep. The yellow light put Remus' face in a gentle glow, making his premature grey hairs shine and the silver scars that dotted his face look less harsh. He was still holding his quill, he had a doomed attempt at notetaking despite knowing better. He was slowly swaying, his height obvious even when sitting down. He's going to topple any minute, thought Sirius. And sure enough, he slowly leant further and further over his desk until his nose made contact, the sensation abruptly waking him from his daze, his back straightening instantaneously. His eyes had gone wide mimicking a dear in headlights. Sirius couldn't hold back a small snort, causing Remus' eyes to catch his. He had a black smudge on his nose from where he had been taking notes on Ugbald the Ugly. Sirius' hand made a made a movement as if it were going to reach out, but instead it rested on his lap.

"You have something on your nose." he said dumbly.

He spent the rest of the lesson watching Remus try in vain to rub his nose clean with his sleeve.

It had been two days since he saw Evans' magazine and he couldn't get the blasted thing out of his head. He didn't know why it bothered him so much.

Why should he care if two dudes or two girls wanted to shag? It wasn't any of his business.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about what his friends had said.

He had to go back to the Gryffindor dorm before his Transfiguration class to swap out his books. There weren't many people in the common room, as most were already at lunch.

It was wide and made of canvas with a brightly coloured abstract pattern on it. One of the straps had a small plastic charm dangling from it. It was Evans' bag. Her magazine may be still in there, that is, if she was still reading it days later.

He glanced around. No one was paying him any mind. He walked over, and before he let himself pause, he opened the bag. You have to be confident, he reminded himself. If you act like you're doing what you should be doing, no one will question it. Inside were school books, rolls of parchment, quills, and most certainly, the magazine. He froze. He felt that familiar sense of nonexistent eyes watching him. No one is watching you, he told himself. His body refused to move, staring, frozen, at the magazine in the bag. He slowly forced his hand towards the opening, reaching for it, when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He flung himself into the nearest armchair and tried to look natural, his brain yelling at his heartbeat to slow down.

"Evans." he said, grinning at her.

"Black." she said back, eyebrow raised. She put her Charms spellbook in her bag, and left with Mary in towe.

Once the Fat Lady's portrait had been surely closed, he leapt off the chair in a single fluid movement and headed straight for his dormitory. He skipped up the stairs two at a time, rushing ahead with the momentum, not stopping until he closed his dormitory door behind him. He unrolled the magazine that was clenched in his fist. Heart pounding, he marched directly to his bed, scanning the area for a suitable hiding place.

"Sirius? You up there? We gotta go to Charms." called James' voice from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah, I'm coming." he called back. He ripped back his mattress cover and stuffed the magazine underneath, before attempting to put it back as neat as possible. He left the room without looking back.

In Charms he distinctly Did Not look at his classmates, instead focusing on the lesson. Well, tried to. The magazine and the reminder that it was in his dormitory would always weedle its way into his brain. He scowled at his quill.

"Man, what did it do to you now?" Remus laughed quietly next to him. "Quills are not known to be malevolent."

Sirius sent him a playful smirk. "Not this one. Real menace it is, tearing up the streets."

He raised his hand to his forehead in feign dismay. "Oh no, whatever shall we do? Our perfect suburban life ruined by-" he shudders. "Quill street gangs!" They sniggered under their breath.

"Mr Black and Mr Lupin, is something the matter?" called Professor Flitwick from the front of the room.

"No sir." answered Remus with a polite smile. It shrunk however when he looked back at Sirius. "Hey Pads, how are you doing?"

Sirius gave him an odd look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been acting oddly lately. I was wondering if something had happened." he said looking concerned.

Sirius balked. "I'm fine." Remus gave him a gentle smile, a small, soft thing that made the scar near his lip disappear and Sirius' insides melt like butter.

"I am willing to listen if you wish to tell me. In the meantime-" he scanned the opposing side of the classroom filled with ascending rows of desks before settling on a particularly mean-spirited Gryffindor. "Want to mess with Spincer?"

"Hell yeah." Sirius leant forward over his desk in anticipation. Remus' face split into a sly grin as he whispered under his breath and flicked his wand under the desk. The cork stopping Spincer's ink pot shot out violently and zoomed straight up one of his nostrils. He let out a yell as people around him laughed, and Flitwick tried in vain to regain attention.

Remus let out a snigger at Spincer's expense, and Sirius couldn't help but stare at him. Again. He determinedly ignored the voice in his head informing him that it was beginning to be a pattern.

That night after dinner, he was the first one back to their dorm, and retrieved the magazine from its hiding place before the elves would later that night. The others weren't far behind him, so he was forced to hide it inside his robes and join them in the common room. He leant on it all night, hidden between him and the couch, and the noise and activity of the common room almost allowed him to forget what sat against him.

Eventually, finally, the room emptied of even the seventh years. Sensible Shacklebolt and ever-tired Remus had retired hours ago, and finally James and Peter walked up to their dormitory to join them, leaving Sirius with the quiet crackling of the fireplace. Slowly, he realised he was the only one in the common room. Grasping the opportunity, he cautiously pulls the magazine from his robes and sets it on the cushion next to him. He pulls his dark hair back into a ponytail, and picks it up.

It was full of interviews of activists from the rally, about their lives and how they realised they were queer. One had a photograph of a dark skinned woman with a big hat. "I would sneak into my mother's closet…"

Another of a young man "...I never really looked at girls when I was young"

The third showed two women, one with long hair, the other short. The short haired lady gazed lovingly at the other. The photograph didn't move, but the emotion on their faces was clear, it was the same look James sent Lily's way when he thought no one was watching. "...I look at my girlfriend and think, wow. She's radiant. She's gorgeous and wonderful and amazing in ways I can only dream of being." He gently traced his fingers over those words, his heart pounding yet completely unnoticing, as something terrifying inside him remarked on how familiar that was.

"So that's where it went."

In a state of panic, he thrust the magazine behind his back in an oh so casual way. Evans was standing in front of him, an amused expression on her face.

"Evans what are you doing here?" he exclaimed in a hush.

"I live here." she was carrying library books and she was still wearing her robes.

"So do I."

"Unfortunately." They stared at each other determined, reaching a stalemate. "Is there a reason you took my rag Sirius?"

He guiltily pulled the magazine from behind him. "Oh this?" Sirius leant back and draped his arms over the back of the chair, crossing his ankle over his knee. "Oh Evans," he drawled. "You know I'm just fascinated by muggle culture and their music these days, anything to make my dear old mother froth at the mouth."

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm well aware. I mean why did you steal it? You know I'd lend it to you."

All Gryffindor courage he may have had until that point seemed to drain out of him as his heart slowed almost to a stop.

"No reason."

Lily put her stack of books down on a nearby table, before approaching him. She sat next to him on the couch, and he sat up straight to meet her. "Sirius, I'm not mad at you." She gave him a gentle smile. "Is there a reason you took this magazine? I promise not to tell anyone."

Ah. He could see why James was so loopy about her.

"Promise?"

"Pinky promise." she held out her hand.

He took it, hooking his pinky over hers, and didn't let go. He looked at her determinedly.

"I think I might be one of them."

She didn't look surprised. "You do?" He nodded in response. "How do you feel about that?"

"I dunno. Scared." He was surprised at how easy it was to say all this to her. She was direct, and stubborn, rather like him, he supposed. But she was not unkind.

"That's alright. Being scared ain't a bad thing." She said it so matter-of-factly he might've almost believed her. "But it's also kind of exciting, isn't it?" And with that, a wicked grin spread over her face. Oh, he liked her.

A matching smile blossomed on his face. "I guess it is."

"From what you said earlier, it seems the magical world has a long way to go, just like the muggle one." she said with a sigh. "It's going to be hard. But you've never been one to back down from a challenge, have you?"

He couldn't help but stare wide-eyed at her. He was gobsmacked that someone who for the past five years he's known her, has been only a casual acquaintance, subject of his teasing, and a willing lender of muggle magazines after he nagged her for them. And yet, she seemed to understand him wholly, to know exactly what he needed to hear. In this one conversation he was seeing more of her than ever before, and she may just be one of the coolest people he's ever met.

She unhooked her pinky from his, as he still stared at her. She pulled something from her robe pocket, and passed it to him. It was a weird, glossy square of parchment, dotted with pink triangles.

"Those came with the magazine. They're stickers, you peel off the picture and the back sticks to stuff. They sometimes come off though, so I usually charm them on." She flipped her dark red hair over her shoulder. "That triangle is a symbol of the queer movement, that's why it's on all those signs they're holding."

"Ah." He held it gingerly, as if he were afraid it'd become crushed in his hands. "Thank you."

"You can keep the rag too," she said, standing up and retrieving her books from the table. "I've already read it, and it seems like you could use it." she stated with a smile, before disappearing up the stairs.

Alright, she was definitely the coolest person he'd ever met.

He went up to his own dorm with new goods in hand, the nerves he'd been holding on to completely dissipated. Instead he was filled with contentedness, and a rising excitement.

The room was dark, the moon guiding him from the windows. His three best friends and Shacklebolt were long asleep. He knelt down before his trunk, placing the magazine as quietly as he could inside, before picking up the sticker sheet. He ran his finger along it experimentally, and he gasped as one was pulled away from the sheet. It stuck to his finger, and being the impulsive person he was, put on the first thing he could see; his trunk, on its side, near the floor. He looked close, and Lily was right, he could still peel it back off with his fingernail. After a moment of thought, he pulled out his wand, and whispered a quiet "Agglutino", and watched as stuck permanently to the trunk, shrinking into the side like it was vacuum-sealed.

With that he put the stickers away with the magazine and made his way to bed.

When he was woken the next morning Shacklebolt's booming voice, James' yelling, Peter's squeaks of worry, and Remus still snoring beside him, he couldn't be sure if that whole conversation with Evans had been a dream his sleep-addled brain had made up.

He was reaching inside his trunk for his schoolbooks when a thought struck him. He reached around his trunk, his fingers brushing against the rug as he searched for the sticker he put there last night. Finding it, he rubbed his fingertips across the smooth surface, finding a comfort in the texture. The knowledge that there was a secret signboard, obvious to those who'd see, but undecipherable to his family, that only he knows he put there, filled him with a tingling excitement. Something real, tangible, something he can hold as proof that he stands up to them of a choice of his own. A small smile blossomed on his face, for once feeling that Gryffindor bravery that discerned him from them in the first place.

James eventually dragged him down to the Great Hall with Peter, best to leave Remus to his own devices. And when they sat at the Gryffindor table not far from where Evans sat, she sent him a knowing smile. He blocked out James' ramblings about how radiant she looked with her hair up in a ponytail in favour of watching Remus join the table.

"Yo Remus," he began, aiming a smirk at him. "How was your beauty sleep?"

"Knock it off, you nonce." he said with a chuckle, turning his attention to his breakfast. His eyes off him, Sirius couldn't help but continue to watch him fondly.

Until a few spaces to Remus' right, he saw, to his horror, Evans' kind smile morph into a downright devilish Cheshire cat grin.

He takes it back, Lily Evans is the worst person he's ever met.


End file.
